Chili Peppers still extra- spicy
American rockers return with a new album, new guitarist
When the members of Red Hot Chili Peppers got together to start writing for their current CD, I’m With You, the immediate results had to be reassuring for the veteran band.
“The first day, we came up with ideas that ended up being on the record, two ideas,” drummer Chad Smith said in an interview. “One of them was Brendan’s Death Song and the second one was Annie Wants a Baby or something.”
The reason there may have been a sigh of relief was because longtime band members Smith, Anthony Kiedis ( vocals) and Flea ( real name Michael Peter Balzary, bass) were working on new music for the first time with a new guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer.
Klinghoffer wasn’t a stranger to the group. He was a longtime friend and had toured with the Chili Peppers as a keyboardist, guitarist and backing vocalist on the latter part of the band’s tour in support of its 2006 double CD, Stadium Arcadium.
So there was familiarity with Klinghoffer’s playing abilities, Smith said, but what he would contribute as a songwriter was more of an unknown.
“We knew he was a dedicated musician, but we didn’t know if we could write songs with him the way we write songs,” Smith said.
“A lot of time it’s just jamming and improvising, as well as, ‘ I’m working on this thing at home and what do you think of this?’ And Josh immediately had a lot of great ideas and fell into the way that we do it.”
The departure of former guitarist John Frusciante came in 2009, just as the band was ending what had grown into a two- year hiatus and turning its attention toward writing a new CD.
“We had been working pretty continuously — recording, writing, touring, writing, recording, touring — for about 10 years.
“It was just like, ‘ Let’s live our lives and do other things and not be Chili Peppers for a year,’” Smith said of the decision to take a break.
“People were like, ‘ Oh my God, I can’t believe you, how could you do that and not stay in the public eye?’ You know, our mental and physical well- beings were more important than being on some music business treadmill. And I say that because our managers were a little like, ‘ OK, we’re on a roll and blah, blah, blah.” Smith said that after the tour for Stadium Arcadium ended and the band went on break, he saw no indications from Frusciante that he was planning to leave Chili Peppers. But the parting was amicable.
“He was very cool about it,” Smith said of Frusciante, a man he considers the most talented
musician with whom he’s ever played. “He called everybody and ( told us), ‘ You know, I just don’t think I can really do this whole thing.’ And it’s more than just writing songs and making a record, being in our band. There’s a lot to it. I just think he was sort of tired of that.”
Smith and his bandmates were aware that Frusciante was leaving a significant void in the creative mix of the group.
“We’re a very democratic band,” Smith said. “We all bring important elements to the group. But in the songwriting department, John Frusciante was very important, and he’s just an
encyclopedia of music, not to say that he’s not as well an incredible musician, guitar player, singer, everything. He’s just a well- rounded musical genius.” When the band reconvened in October 2009, all four members agreed to take a full year to write for I’m With You, a move that Smith said was partly done to lessen any pressure Klinghoffer might have felt about being the new Chili Pepper. As the results of the first writing session suggested, song ideas were not in short supply.
“We wrote a lot of songs for this record. We easily could have put out another double album,” Smith said. “But I think the record company would probably not have been too happy about that. You know, you can’t overwhelm people these days, and another double album would have been just like, ‘ Woah, what are you guys doing?’ So it was very difficult, but we chose the children that went best together and put those on one ( album).”
I’m With You has not yet become the blockbuster hit that Stadium Arcadium ( or for that matter, earlier records like Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the band’s 1991 commercial breakthrough, or 1999’ s Californication) have been. It opened at No. 2, but has fallen off the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. The group, though, has released Brendan’s Death Song.
The group has also released We Salute You, an EP featuring the Chili Peppers’ versions of songs by six acts in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including The Beach Boys ( I Get Around), Ramones ( Havana Affair) and Neil Young ( Everybody Knows This is Nowhere).
That EP arrived to mark a special occasion for the Chili Peppers — the band’s induction in April into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Smith admits the Hall of Fame isn’t just another honour.
“I can’t put a lot into awards and stuff. Music is not about a competition. But to be recognized for something, like I say, for the longevity of your career, what you’ve done and brought to it, we’re pretty pleased about it. I think it’s pretty cool,” he said.